More people in central Florida are worried they will start to feel the impact of the government shutdown. Some local military personnel have received letters that say their benefit checks will stop. Many veterans said they depend on that money to pay for basic things, such as rent and food. Disabled veteran Patricia Black said the government they served is now letting them down. “To have it taken away is just unfathomable,” said Black.

Thousands of protesters pushed through barriers to make their way to the World War II Memorial closed under government shutdown in Washington DC. Local police donned riot gear as they tried to control the protesting veterans.

The crowd chanted “Tear down these walls” and sang patriotic songs in protest to the closing of monument during the government crisis, according to local news coverage.

The federal government, who shut the national parks after claiming they didn’t have the money to keep them open, is now sending in Park Rangers to patrol the parks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sadly, the Rangers are not being sent in so visitors can enjoy these parks, there being sent in to arrest anyone who tries to enter them.

Earlier today, a lone bearded man took up the job of furloughed federal workers and mowed the lawn behind the Lincoln Memorial in stark defiance of the Obama administration’s efforts to make the shutdown as “difficult for people” as possible.

Chris Cox, the man pictured above pushing a lawnmower, told CBS DC his actions weren’t politically motivated, but meant as a symbol of respect for the veterans set to convene in the nation’s capital this upcoming weekend for the Million Vet March.

“These are our memorials. Do they think that we’re just going to let them go to hell? No,” Cox exclusively told All-News 99.1 reporter John Domen. “If they shut down our memorials, we’re still going to take the trash out, we’re going to clean the windows, we’re going to cut the grass, we’re going to pull the weeds, we’re going to do the tree work.”

According to the Weekly Standard, “It’s unclear how much of the expansive lawn behind the memorial was mowed, but Park Police were alerted and three cruisers with multiple officers showed up.”

A Park Police public information officer said Cox “was asked to leave, and he complied.”

This type of civil disobedience has been carefully engineered by the Obama administration to lay the fiscal debate blame at the feet of Republicans who are trying to negotiate portions of the Obamacare law – which forces every American (at gunpoint) to obtain health insurance regardless of their state of health.

However, the president’s efforts have backfired as he has ultimately ended up taking most of the heat for barricading national parks and memorials across the country.

Earlier this week, we reported how police arrested numerous Vietnam veterans during a vigil at the Vietnam Memorial Plaza in New York City where they met to protest the 12th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan.

Feds used “gestapo tactics” to treat senior citizens like terrorists during the shutdown of Yellowstone National park, placing them under armed guard in a locked hotel as panicked tourists thought they had been arrested, vowing never to return to America.

Pat Vaillancourt was part of a tour group of senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States who were in Yellowstone national park when the government shutdown was announced last week.

When the party briefly exited their tour bus to take photos of a herd of bison, they were aggressively ordered by armed National Park Service rangers to get back in the vehicle on the grounds that they were involved in “recreation,” and that this wasn’t permitted during the shutdown.

The group had booked to stay in a hotel within the park, which soon turned into a prison as the visitors were told to remain in the building until their stay expired, despite the fact that the tour guide had already paid the $300 fee to enter the park.

“We’ve become a country of fear, guns and control,” Vaillancourt told the Eagle-Tribune, adding “They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed. They told us you can’t go outside.”

The tourists were placed under armed guard and locked inside the hotel as NPS rangers stood outside the doors.

Asian tourists visiting from more authoritarian countries thought they had been placed under arrest.

“Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, ‘Oh my God, are we under arrest?’ They felt like they were criminals,” said Vaillancourt.

When the tour bus was leaving the park, it was also prevented from stopping at a full service rest room on the way out, which had been threatened with having its license revoked if it allowed the bus to stop there.

Vaillancourt said her father, who had spent 3 years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, “always said to stand up for what you believe in, and don’t let them push you around,” but that she was now embarrassed, angry and heartbroken for her country as a result of her experience.

Tour guide Gordon Hodgson accused the park service of using “gestapo tactics” to intimidate the seniors.

“The national parks belong to the people,” he told the Livingston Enterprise. “This isn’t right.”

Hodgson added that the foreign tourists vowed never to return to America after the treatment they received.

The incident is yet another example of how the federal government is exploiting the government shut down to punish American citizens as part of a political ploy to make them blame Republicans for the situation.

Last week, an unnamed park services official told the Washington Times that they had been ordered to, “make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

Bartenders close to the capitol have told local reporters that members of Congress are keeping themselves busy during the government shutdown by partying and drinking, and generally having a great big knees up.

“I don’t think the public would be happy to know that they are actually enjoying this time.” one bartender at Hawk and Dove bar on Pennsylvania Avenue told WUSA9 News.

The barman added that members of Congress have been “cutting loose” all week, and started off with a party on the first night of the shutdown.

“There was a private party upstairs with a few Congress people and senators here that night.” the bartender stated.